Pralmorelin (

INN Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

) (brand name GHRP Kaken 100; former developmental code names KP-102, GPA-748, WAY-GPA-748), also known as pralmorelin hydrochloride ( JAN) and pralmorelin dihydrochloride (

USAN 280px, "Samguk Sagi" Book 04. Silla's Records. In 512, Usan-guk（于山國）was Ulleungdo（鬱陵島） Usan-guk, or the State of Usan, occupied Ulleung-do and the adjacent islands during the Korean Three Kingdoms period. According to t ...

), as well as, notably, growth hormone-releasing peptide 2 (GHRP-2), is a

growth hormone secretagogue Growth hormone secretagogues or GH secretagogues (GHSs) are a class of drugs which act as secretagogues (i.e., induce the secretion) of growth hormone (GH). They include agonists of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, ghrelin/growth hormone s ...

(GHS) used as a diagnostic agent that is marketed by Kaken Pharmaceutical in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in a single-dose formulation for the assessment of

growth hormone deficiency Growth hormone deficiency (GHD), or hyposomatotropism, is a medical condition resulting from not enough growth hormone (GH). Generally the most noticeable symptom is that an individual attains a short height. Newborns may also present low blood ...

(GHD). Pralmorelin is an orally-active,

synthetic Synthetic may refer to: Science * Synthetic biology * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...

peptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty am ...

drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...

, specifically, an analogue of

met-enkephalin Met-enkephalin, also known as metenkefalin ( INN), sometimes referred to as opioid growth factor (OGF), is a naturally occurring, endogenous opioid peptide that has opioid effects of a relatively short duration. It is one of the two forms of enkep ...

, with the

amino acid sequence Protein primary structure is the linear sequence of amino acids in a peptide or protein. By convention, the primary structure of a protein is reported starting from the amino-terminal (N) end to the carboxyl-terminal (C) end. Protein biosynthe ...

D-Ala-D-(β-naphthyl)-Ala-Trp-D-Phe-Lys-NH₂. It acts as a ghrelin/growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR)

agonist An agonist is a chemical that activates a Receptor (biochemistry), receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are Cell (biology), cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an R ...

, and was the first of this class of drugs to be introduced clinically. Acute administration of the drug markedly increases the levels of plasma

growth hormone Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in ...

(GH) and reliably induces sensations of

hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In t ...

and increases

food intake Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive – ...

in humans. Pralmorelin was also under investigation for the treatment of GHD and

short stature Short stature refers to a height of a human which is below typical. Whether a person is considered short depends on the context. Because of the lack of preciseness, there is often disagreement about the degree of shortness that should be called ...

( pituitary dwarfism), and made it to phase II

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

s for these indications, but was ultimately never marketed for them. This may be because the ability of pralmorelin to increase plasma GH levels is significantly lower in people with GHD relative to healthy individuals.

References

Abandoned drugs Ghrelin receptor agonists Growth hormone secretagogues Peptides World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited substances {{systemic-hormonal-drug-stub

See also

References